Pope Leo tells Catholic bishops to be 'more forceful' pushing back on this Trump policy

Less than six months into his papacy, Pope Leo XIV is already encouraging leaders of the Catholic Church, telling bishops that he'll have their back as they oppose one of the chief policies of President Donald Trump's second administration.

Politico reported Wednesday that Leo XIV — who is the first American-born pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church — recently met at the Vatican with Bishop Mark Seitz of the El Paso, Texas diocese and the Hope Border Institute (an immigrant rights nonprofit). Seitz and others presented the pope with hundreds of letters from people who are personally experiencing the brunt of the Trump administration's deportation efforts and showed him a four-minute video of immigrants describing their encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Dylan Corbett — who is the founding executive director of the group — told Politico that he was surprised at how closely the pope was following the issue, and remarked that he didn't need to be briefed.

"[Pope Leo] watched the whole thing, and his eyes at the end were filled with tears as he watched it," Corbett said of the video. "As the meeting came to an end he said, ‘You stand with me and I stand with you, and the church will continue to accompany and stand with migrants."

According to Corbett, the pontiff urged Catholic leaders in the U.S. to be "more united and more forceful" in protecting immigrants during Trump's second term. Seitz also said that Pope Leo thanked bishops "for our commitment to the immigrant peoples and also saying that he hopes that the bishops’ conference will speak to this issue."

Leo XIV's remarks come just days after he emphasized governments prioritizing "human dignity" for people "forced to flee" their home countries. Catholic supporters of the Trump administration urged Leo to reconsider his comments, and likened his support for immigrants' rights to supporting "open borders."

The new pope has been vocal in his calls to protect immigrants, mirroring his predecessor, Pope Francis, who led the Catholic Church during Trump's first term and the first three months of the second administration. Francis said in April that Trump's deportation agenda would put immigrants in "a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness" and warned it would "end badly" for the administration.

Click here to read Politico's report in full.